A new Minnesota Public Radio/St. Paul Pioneer Press poll shows Minnesotans
evenly divided over whether to return the state's entire budget surplus to
taxpayers, or spend a big portion of the surplus on education, transportation
and crime prevention. When it comes to the state's tobacco settlement,
72 percent of poll respondents support a plan to set aside
$1.3 billion of the tobacco money in endowments for anti-smoking
campaigns and other programs.

IF STATE LEGISLATORS TOOK ONE CLEAR MESSAGE
from last fall's gubernatorial
election, it was: "Give it back" , as in candidate Jesse Ventura's call to
return the budget surplus to taxpayers. The politicians have assumed the
overwhelming majority of Minnesotans want a rebate, and they've been doing what
they can to deliver one. But a new MPR-Pioneer Press poll suggests public
ambivalence over the rebate issue.

Ring:
I could go either way on it. It really don't make that much difference to
me.

John Ring in Little Falls was one of the 49 percent of poll respondents who said
the state should put a big portion of the tax surplus into schools, highways,
and other purposes. Ring says schools, especially, deserve the extra money,
but he adds this caveat:

Ring:
If they spend it foolishly, give us our damned money back.

St Paul State Representative Andy Dawkins welcomed the poll results, saying he
hopes the numbers will give his DFL caucus the "backbone" to push
for more surplus money for social programs.

Dawkins:
I have felt all through this session that we've never taken the time to
at least pause and think about should we be talking about surpluses and rebates
when we still have waiting lists for sliding-fee child care, when we still have
waiting lists to clean up our polluted lands, when we still have waiting lists
for affordable housing, and so on.

DFL leaders are not about to back off their support for tax rebates; House DFL
leader Tom Pugh says the split poll numbers come as a surprise to him, but as
far as he's concerned, the debate on this issue is over. The House and Senate
both passed rebate legislation two months ago, although differences between
their bills have trapped rebates in conference-committee limbo.

Poll respondents sent a clearer message on the question of how to use the
"one-time money" in the state's tobacco settlement - the $1.3 billion
Democrats and Governor Ventura want to put into special endowments to
benefit anti-smoking programs, medical research and social programs. 72 percent
of respondents favor the endowments, while 23 percent support using the money
for tax relief.

Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe calls the poll results an endorsement of the
idea that the "one-time money" should be set aside.

Moe:
I think the notion of creating endowments, not spending the money, not
rebating the money, but putting the money aside to improve the public health of
the state, to use the interest earned off the endowments, to keep kids from
smoking, smoking prevention, medical research, that's what people want us to do.

House Republicans have been fighting a lonesome battle against the governor and
the Senate to use the tobacco money for tax rebates. They're hoping to encourage
public skepticism about the endowments, the kind of skepticism displayed by
Jessie Anderson, a retiree in Brainerd, who told poll-takers she does not support
tobacco endowments.

Anderson:
I don't think they're going to stop anybody from smoking anyway. They
might as well give it back to taxpayers if they don't have anything better to
do with it, which they don't seem to have. Because people are going to smoke if
they want to.

House Republican Majority Leader Tim Pawlenty says he thinks Minnesotans will
change their minds about the endowments.

Pawlenty:
We have found when you tell voters, "Hey did you know the court
already ordered $200 million, and Blue Cross-Blue Shield is also going to spend $300 million,
on top, for tobacco cessation and research, do you really want to spend more
than half a billion on that in the coming years?" When you give voters that information,
they say "no, " let's see how that money is going to be spent.

In the poll's third budget-related question, respondents were divided about
which kind of tax cut they prefer. 32 percent said they wanted a cut in property
taxes; 30 percent said a cut in income taxes; 21 percent said sales taxes and 15
percent said they'd prefer a reduction in state fees, such as car tabs.